System and method for designing and simulating a fireworks show

Abstract

A system and method for enabling computer users to design and simulate a fireworks show is disclosed. A particular embodiment includes storing firework data in a database, the firework data including firework specification data including parameters corresponding to attributes of a particular firework; using a processor to automatically construct in a user interface a visual firework simulation from the firework data, the visual firework simulation including visual elements that are also part of the user interface, the visual firework simulation depicting a sky field representing a location of a fireworks show and the spatial location of visual elements therein, the visual elements including fireworks, launch positions, and trajectories being simulated by the visual firework using the user interface to directly manipulate the visual elements of the visual firework simulation, including dragging the visual elements in the sky field of the visual firework simulation: using the processor to automatically adjust the firework data according to the user's direct manipulation of the visual elements; and using the processor to automatically update the visual firework simulation and the visual elements in real time in response to the user's direct manipulation of the visual elements and the adjustment of the firework data.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]This patent application relates to computer-implemented simulation systems, according to one embodiment, and more specifically to using a computer system for designing and simulating a fireworks show.COPYRIGHT[0002]A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The following notice applies to the software and data as described below and in the drawings that form a part of this document: Copyright 2009-2010 Finale Fireworks, All Rights Reserved.BACKGROUND[0003]Fireworks shows have become very popular at holiday events, entertainment venues, or other outdoor gatherings. These fireworks shows involve the launching of a sequence of fireworks in various patterns,...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, currently available fireworks show simulators are difficult to operate because the user interface and editing operations are decoupled from the visual simulation.

Fireworks Specification Database 151—Making simulations one by one for all of an inventory of thousands of firework varieties can be tedious work for display operators, who may use fireworks from a variety of manufactures and may even use some custom fireworks that they make themselves.

However, there are serious problems with this conventional representation.

For example: (1) the designer cannot see at a glance how many fireworks are ignited at each cue marker and thus has no idea what the density of effects in the show is; (2) the designer cannot see the durations of individual fireworks on the timeline, and thus cannot tell when a firework is ignited or how long it lasts (typically the cue marker indicates the firework's point of visual impact (the “break”), rather than the point of ignition or launch time); (3) if the firework has multiple breaks, such as cakes or candles that emit multiple shells in a sequence, the designer cannot tell when those breaks occur; (4) the designer cannot select fireworks individually based on their position in the timeline, nor can the designer see at a glance the time positions of the selected fireworks; and (5) the designer cannot directly manipulate the timing of fireworks in the visual representation of the show's time based information.

Obviously, fireworks of different sizes can be launched at the same time, or can break at the same time; but, fireworks of different sizes generally cannot both be launched at the same time and break at the same time because their pre-fire times between launch and break are different.

The problem is, conventional computer programs that calculated pin assignments would overwrite any manual pin assignments.

Even though pyrotechnicians could start with the automatic assignments from a computer program and then modify some assignments manually, if the pyrotechnician wants the computer program to recalculate the assignments and preserve his manual changes, convention systems cannot provide this functionality.

Similarly, if the user specifies specific firing system module configurations at the user configured launch positions, those firing system module configurations become constraints (such as the number of pins on the unit, the maximum number of ignitions per pin, and possible filters such as the requirement that all pins on a particular unit are attached to none other than fireworks of a specific size or launch angle).

The problem with that approach is that the show design might yield a voice cues track with some voice cues that are too close together for a human to distinguish.

This problem may not be obvious at the time of designing and editing the show; because, the delays of different fireworks can be different lengths.

Thus, while designing a show with conventional systems, it may appear that two fireworks have their visual impact sufficiently far apart while in fact the differences in the pre-fire delays of the fireworks can cause their ignitions to occur very close together.

However, generating the voice cues track after the show design is done is too late.

However, the problems with this approach are that the video files are large and therefore difficult to send to the client electronically; also, it may not be legally or technologically practical to integrate the technology to create compressed video files in the desired formats on the user's personal computer.

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